Brinna, The Girl Who Fed The Swans

There was a girl called Brinna, who fed the swans.The swans lived on the lake; Drohan of the flashing beak; Giselle whose pure white neck was the longest and the slenderest ever seen; Seger, Orna, Pisky and Haze, their chicks.Brinna knew them all.Each day she came with crumbs from her table, a table of oak from the sturdiest tree in the forest.

There were people in the kingdom for whom such food would have been a banquet, even the tiniest morsel.‘Wherefore do you give to those who can provide for themselves? ’ they asked. ‘What I give, ’ she answered, ‘is...